A survey of veterinary students has found 100 per cent of graduates would move to rural areas, if the government agreed to wipe out their crippling HECS debt.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Australian Veterinary Association president Dr Bronwyn Orr told The Land the survey of student vets within the association is a clear indication that there is a solution to the dire shortage of vets in rural areas - but nothing is being done about it.
"Rural vets are under a huge amount of pressure for their communities. Sometimes they are just not available to see an animal if there is only one vet on call after hours. The shortage of vets has been a problem for years and while there continues to be a huge demand for vets, rural areas are feeling it the worst," Dr Orr said.
According to Dr Orr, the average vet graduate has a starting salary of around $60,000 per year, but their HECS debt is between $70,000 and $80,000 (depending on whether the student completed a five or a seven year course).
"We know that HECS HELP or HECS forgiveness is a program available to doctors, teachers and nurses but it is still not offered to vets. The government would be well aware that a vet and a doctor have very different circumstances. The earning capacity of a doctor is triple a vet and, for them, it might make more sense to work in a city," Dr Orr said.
"However, we know that vet graduates are very keen on a program to wipe HECS debt in exchange for working in towns in need. Our survey showed every vet student would work in rural towns for three to five years, in return for having their debt forgiven. But, so far our pleas for a HECS forgiveness program have fallen on deaf ears."
Forbes vet Dr Lara Mitchell said rural vets were struggling to keep up with demand.
"In Forbes there will soon be just five vets and it's just not enough for all the emergency cases we attend to, for example, the threat of foot and mouth disease. Our clinic is the only after hours clinic between Dubbo, West Wyalong and Orange, so we are servicing a huge area," Dr Mitchell said.
Dr Mitchell grew up in Yass and said she had always intended to work in a rural area, but she strongly believes if she'd grown up in the city, she would have jumped at the chance to work in the country if it meant her student debt was wiped.
"Having your debt wiped out or subsidised would have been a massive incentive. Having that debt taken off our shoulders would be fantastic, just a huge relief. My HECS on leaving university was $77k and I had a rough start to my career with the flooding last year in Forbes. We just face so many challenges in rural practice so to know that we didn't have the added stress of student debt, would make the world of difference," Dr Mitchell said.
Dr Orr said one of the biggest problems faced by vets was that, unlike other professions, there is not one government portfolio that looks after vets.
"It's very tricky because while teachers, for example, fall under the Education Department, and doctors fall under the Department of Health, we fall under several, such as agriculture, but there is no portfolio that vets fit into on a commonwealth level," Dr Orr said.
Dr Orr said she struggles to understand why Australian vets were not included in a HECS forgiveness program when similar programs have been so successful overseas.
"New Zealand has had a similar program in place for a decade which is fully subscribed. They've never had a problem getting students onboard and they get immediate relief for towns that need vets. And many vets end up staying due to ties to the local community," Dr Orr said.
"So, we know that these programs work in NZ as well as the US and Canada - so we don't see why it can't be offered in Australia. We've had support from the National Farmers Federation and the RSPCA but we keep getting a negative response from the Australian government."
A spokesperson for Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said, "When laws were passed to cut HELP debt for doctors and nurses who move to regional areas, the Parliament decided to review the effectiveness of this by July 2025 and consider whether it should be expanded to other professions."
